Orpheus and Eurydice

• Mythology


  The study of myths/ gods and goddesses
• Thrace is the place where Orpheus grew up
• Wilderness


  Inhabited by human beings
• Wooed


  To seek the affection, favour, or love of (a woman) with a view to marriage
• Meadow


  A piece of grassland
• Endure


  Suffer
• World of death


  Underworld
• Demeter's daughter


  Persephone (Queen of underworld)
• Lord of the dead

  Pluto (was the ancient Roman god of the dead, wealth, and agriculture; Hades (ancient Greek God of the Underworld)
• Stillness


  A calm, quiet, motionless state
• Iron Tears


  Symbolize the tears shed in these situations, implying that they are strong and unyielding, cutting deeply into the soul
• Desolation


  State of complete emptiness or destruction
• Forsook


  Abandon
• Solitude


  The state or situation of being alone
• Maenads


  The female cultist followers or nurses of the god of fertility and wine, Dionysus
• Limb


  An arm or leg of a person
• Nightingales


  Singing melodiously and beautifully
• The classic story of Orpheus concerns a renowned musician who is so distraught over the death of his wife, Eurydice, that he attempts to rescue her from the Underworld, the place of the dead
• The first literary mention of the story belongs to the Roman poet Virgil. Ovid's version followed the original a few decades later
• Many interpret the story of Orpheus and Eurydice as a simple lesson in trust. If Orpheus trusted that Eurydice was following behind him, as Hades had promised, maybe he wouldn't have turned around so soon
• The moral of Orpheus and Eurydice is to be patient and keep one's faith
• Possible main ideas/theme


  • A Tragic Story of Love
  • Depicts love, courage, heartbreak, and death
  • The power of love; love is stronger than death itself
  • The power of unwavering love and its consequences
  • The tragic tale of a love that fought against all odds
  • Explores the enduring power of love and the lengths one might go to be reunited with a loved one
• Orpheus is brutally torn to shreds, and his head and lyre, still singing, land in the river Hebrus, and are carried to the island of Lesbos. For all the tragedy, Orpheus and Eurydice are at last reunited in the underworld